Shiite militias step up Iraq attacks on US troops

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 8, 2011 file photo, the transfer cases containing the remains, from left, of Army Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri of Chicago, Ill., Pfc. Christopher B. Fishbeck of Victorville, Calif., Pfc. Michael B. Cook of Middletown, Ohio, and Emilio J. Campo Jr. of Madelia, Minn., sit inside a U.S. Air Force C-5 cargo plane upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The Department of Defense announced the deaths of Olivieri, Fishbeck, Cook and Campo Jr., who were supporting Operation New Dawn in Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
— AP

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 8, 2011 file photo, the transfer cases containing the remains, from left, of Army Pfc. Michael C. Olivieri of Chicago, Ill., Pfc. Christopher B. Fishbeck of Victorville, Calif., Pfc. Michael B. Cook of Middletown, Ohio, and Emilio J. Campo Jr. of Madelia, Minn., sit inside a U.S. Air Force C-5 cargo plane upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The Department of Defense announced the deaths of Olivieri, Fishbeck, Cook and Campo Jr., who were supporting Operation New Dawn in Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
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FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011 file photo, U.S. Army Lt. Daniel McCord, left, Staff Sgt. Marc Krugh, center and Sgt. Christopher Torrentes, right, from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment pray before heading out on a patrol at Contingency Operating Site Kalsu, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)— AP

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011 file photo, U.S. Army Lt. Daniel McCord, left, Staff Sgt. Marc Krugh, center and Sgt. Christopher Torrentes, right, from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment pray before heading out on a patrol at Contingency Operating Site Kalsu, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
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FILE - In this Thursday, May 26, 2011 file photo, militiamen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr march over the American flag while wearing shirts bearing the Iraqi flag in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File)— AP

FILE - In this Thursday, May 26, 2011 file photo, militiamen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr march over the American flag while wearing shirts bearing the Iraqi flag in the Sadr City district of Baghdad, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim, File)
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FILE - In this May 26, 2004, file photo, Qais al-Khazali, then the top aide of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and leader of a militant group called Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, inspects the damage after overnight fighting in Najaf, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)— AP

FILE - In this May 26, 2004, file photo, Qais al-Khazali, then the top aide of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and leader of a militant group called Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, inspects the damage after overnight fighting in Najaf, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)
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FILE - In this Friday, May 13, 2011, file photo, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is surrounded by bodyguards as he speaks at Friday prayers in Kufa, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani, File)— AP

FILE - In this Friday, May 13, 2011, file photo, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is surrounded by bodyguards as he speaks at Friday prayers in Kufa, 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq. Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces after a rocket strike on Thursday. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.(AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani, File)
/ AP

BAGHDAD 
Shiite militias backed by Iran have ramped up attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, making June the deadliest month in two years for American forces. The militiamen's goal is to prevent the U.S. military from extending its presence in the country past the end of this year.

Three separate militias have been involved in the attacks, particularly a small but deadly group known as the Hezbollah Brigades, believed to be funded and trained by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard and its special operations wing, the Quds Force.

The militia attacks - mainly in the Shiite heartland in southern Iraq - raise the prospect of increased violence against Americans if a residual U.S. force remains in the country past 2011, a possibility being considered by the Baghdad government to help maintain a still fragile security.

They also point to the persistent efforts by Shiite-majority Iran, the United States' top regional rival, to influence Iraq after the Americans' exit.

In a statement targeted at the militias, Iraqi parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi called Thursday on all groups to support the government in Baghdad if it ultimately decides to ask U.S. troops to stay.

In the latest American deaths, a senior U.S. official in Baghdad said Thursday that three U.S. troops were killed a day earlier when a huge rocket known as an IRAM struck a remote desert base just a few miles (kilometers) from the Iranian border in Iraq's southern Wasit province.

The deaths brought the monthly U.S. military toll to 15, nearly all of them of them from attacks suspected to have been planned by planned by Shiite militias. That's the highest number of military deaths in Iraq since June 2009, and the most combat-related deaths since June 2008. Since March 2003, 4,469 American troops have died in Iraq.

The IRAMs are a hallmark of Hezbollah Brigades, or Kataib Hezbollah, a militia that U.S. Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, the military's top spokesman in Iraq, said is almost exclusively reliant on Iran.

The Hezbollah Brigades, which has links to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah, is solely focused on attacking U.S. troops and other American personnel and claimed responsibility for a June 6 rocket attack that killed five soldiers in Baghdad.

The force, estimated at about 1,000 fighters, receives unlimited funding from Iran, an Iraqi lawmaker familiar with militia operations said. Its militants are paid between $300 to $500 each month, said a senior Iraqi intelligence official. He described the militia as the most difficult for counterterror forces to penetrate because, like al-Qaida, operatives are segregated into cells that strictly kept apart.

The lawmaker and Iraqi official, along with several U.S. officials, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters.

The new spate of attacks on U.S. troops began in mid-March, after the Obama administration started hinting it would prefer to see some American troops remain in Iraq into 2012 to help preserve the nation's shaky security and stave off Iranian influence. About 46,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and those are supposed to leave by Dec. 31 under the terms of a 2008 security agreement between Washington and Baghdad.